Yeomans Work: Barr Nomination Deserves Strict Scrutiny

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 10, 2019 – In the latest edition of Yeomans Work, AFJ Senior Justice Fellow Bill Yeomans calls on the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject the notion that senators should defer to the whims of the president in confirming Cabinet nominees, and calls on them to subject attorney general nominee William Barr to strict scrutiny.

“The need for skepticism is at its greatest for a Trump attorney general nominee. Trump does not understand or accept the role of the attorney general as an independent guardian of the rule of law. His disdain for Jeff Sessions after Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation revealed Trump’s view that the role of his attorney general was to protect him,” writes Yeomans.

Yeomans argues that at Barr’s nomination hearing next week, senators on the Judiciary Committee should “reject any notion of deference to Trump. They must question Barr vigorously regarding his views on executive power, demand that he recuse himself from Trump investigations, and urge that he reconsider the Department’s stands on civil rights, the environment, and criminal justice.”

Yeomans Workfocuses on the challenges to the justice system in the era of Trump. Bill Yeomans is available for media interviews. Contact Laurie Kinney, Communications Director, at [email protected] or 202-464-7367.